During the holidays in the days before television, people gathered to share food, drink, and a glowing fire, and to entertain themselves by competing through storytelling. Ghost stories won the night. Consider this. When winter came, food ran low, the cold threatened and disease killed many, often taking your loved ones. You missed them at Christmas, so the holidays used to be a mournful time. Eerie tales were popular, and if Halloween was the start of ghost story season then it peaked at Christmas. So what a perfect time for a new episode of What Are You Afraid Of?

To celebrate mid-winter, horror authors T. Fox Dunham & Phil Thomas celebrate tales of monsters and the supernatural. Fox has researched several Philadelphia haunted houses and has written an account of a notoriously spooky mansion in Chestnut Hill: The Baleroy Mansion. English folksinger David Walton narrates part one of these stories about the myriad spirits who inhabit this beautiful home including a ghost boy who appears to workers and a mother who refuses to stop giving advice even from the afterlife.

Then, the hosts talk about the many horror movies set during Christmas including the classic story of holiday mayhem, Gremlins! Little green monsters torment a small American town, and they burn most of it down on Christmas Eve. This movie is considered a Christmas classic, watched by many. They pay homage by discussing the history and trivia of Gremlins. Remember the three rules?

The hosts also play some funny holiday songs including the ballad of a frustrated neighbor forced to look at a hideous blow-up Santa. Then, Fox shares some of the rich history of the mid-winter holidays from the ancient holiday of Yule to the evolution of Christmas in the United States. So, we wish you happy holidays and remind you to indulge this dark and cold season. Christmas has a dark side—or the lights wouldn’t be so bright.